The Impact of Augmented Information on Visuo-Motor Adaptation in Younger and Older Adults

BACKGROUND: Adjustment to a visuo-motor rotation is known to be affected by ageing. According to previous studies, the age-related differences primarily pertain to the use of strategic corrections and the generation of explicit knowledge on which strategic corrections are based, whereas the acquisition of an (implicit) internal model of the novel visuo-motor transformation is unaffected. The present study aimed to assess the impact of augmented information on the age-related variation of visuo-motor adjustments. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Participants performed aiming movements controlling a cursor on a computer screen. Visual feedback of direction of cursor motion was rotated 75 degrees relative to the direction of hand motion. Participants had to adjust to this rotation in the presence and absence of an additional hand-movement target that explicitly depicted the input-output relations of the visuo-motor transformation. An extensive set of tests was employed in order to disentangle the contributions of different processes to visuo-motor adjustment. Results show that the augmented information failed to affect the age-related variations of explicit knowledge, adaptive shifts, and aftereffects in a substantial way, whereas it clearly affected initial direction errors during practice and proprioceptive realignment. CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to expectations, older participants apparently made no use of the augmented information, whereas younger participants used the additional movement target to reduce initial direction errors early during practice. However, after a first block of trials errors increased, indicating a neglect of the augmented information, and only slowly declined thereafter. A hypothetical dual-task account of these findings is discussed. The use of the augmented information also led to a selective impairment of proprioceptive realignment in the younger group. The mere finding of proprioceptive realignment in adaptation to a visuo-motor rotation in a computer-controlled setup is noteworthy since visual and proprioceptive information pertain to different objects

Generation Z: Social Media and News Consumption

Team Breaking News will find how Gen Z’s news consumption habits are influenced by the social media platforms they frequent. Data collected through this research aims to understand media habits. Finding a solution to this problem will enable healthier social media consumption habits and how businesses are affected by consumption habits relating to purchase behavior. Gathering conducted research through surveys and trends such as qualitative and quantitative data will help understand Gen Z’ social media habits. Finding and understanding social media habits will help businesses know how to reach their consumer demographic and market certain ideas and products to them

A Study of Situational Awareness in a Small Group of Sea Kayaking Guides

Situational awareness, which informs the decisions made by sea kayaking guides, is a critical safety factor in guided sea kayaking experiences. This study examines the situational awareness of a group of sea kayak guides operating in moderate water conditions. Utilising virtual reality technology, a freeze probe technique was employed with a small group of sea kayak guides. The findings suggest that the guides’ recognition and understanding of key informational cues lacked both comprehension of their meaning and the ability to project their future impact on the situation. It is proposed that sea kayaking guide training needs to provide better comprehension of the (emerging) situations guides may experience as well as a capacity to predict the potential impacts of those situations. Improvements in metacognition and perception/action associations, rather than simple attention to the situation, are also a useful potential avenue to explore